To GOOGOL or Not To GOOGLE

"Google can bring back a hundred thousand answers. 
A librarian can bring you back the right one." 
 The Guardian (London)

goo·gle/ˈgo͞ogəl/

Verb:

Use an Internet search engine, particularly Google.com: "she spent the afternoon googling aimlessly". Search for the name of (someone) on the Internet to find out information about them.

It has become a verb of common use in our popular lexicon "to google".  And I'll admit it...I've googled, too (I "googled" google for the screenshot above).  But it is no accident that the first definition uses the phrase "googling aimlessly" as an example.  Google is great when you have plenty of time and want to wander through endless websites looking for exactly the correct result.  However, as you can see by the number of "hits", you would have to wander through 16,430,000,000 websites to truly know if you have gotten the information you want.

If you were really looking for the meaning of the math term "GOOGOL", you might have to dig deeper.  If you got lucky (and spelled it correctly), you could find the following:

 Of course, it might still be a bit confusing:

Any good librarian will direct students and staff to the best resource for the information they need.  Sometimes that is a particular website; sometimes it is a dictionary; sometimes it is a book.  But the best resource, the most reliable resource, the QUICKEST resource - is someone who already knows where to find the correct answer.  Ask your librarian.